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Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the field of Egyptology, transliteration is the process of converting (or map
ping) texts written in the Egyptian language to alphabetic symbols representing
uniliteral hieroglyphs or their hieratic and Demotic counterparts. This process
facilitates the publication of texts where the inclusion of photographs or drawi
ngs of an actual Egyptian document is impractical.
It should be emphasised that transliteration is not the same as transcription. T
ranscription seeks to reproduce the pronunciation of a text. For example, the na
me of the founder of the Twenty-second dynasty is transliterated as
nq but transcr
ibed Shoshenq in English, Chchanq in French, Sjesjonk in Dutch, and Scheschonq in
German.
Due to the exact details regarding the phonetics of ancient Egyptian not being c
ompletely known, most transcriptions depend on Coptic for reconstruction or are
theoretical in nature. Egyptologists, therefore, rely on transliteration in scie
ntific publications.
Contents [hide]
1
Standards
2
Electronic transliteration
2.1
Unicode
2.1.1 Egyptological alef, ayin, and yod
3
Demotic
4
Table of conventional transliteration schemes
5
Samples of various transliteration schemes
6
Uniliteral signs
7
See also
8
Notes
9
References
10
External links
Standards[edit]
[]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering sup
port, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode cha
racters.
Important as transliteration is to the field of Egyptology, there is no one stan
dard scheme in use for hieroglyphic and hieratic texts. Some might even argue th
at there are as many systems of transliteration as there are Egyptologists. Howe
ver, there are a few closely related systems that can be regarded as conventiona
l. Many non-German-speaking Egyptologists use the system described in Gardiner 1
954, whereas many German-speaking scholars tend to opt for that used in the Wrter
buch der aegyptischen Sprache (Erman and Grapow 1926 1953), the standard dictionar
y of the ancient Egyptian language. However, there is a growing trend, even amon
g English-speaking scholars, to adopt a modified version of the method used in t
he Wrterbuch (e.g., Allen 2000).
Although these conventional approaches to transliteration have been followed sin
ce most of the second half of the nineteenth century to the present day, there h
ave been some attempts to adopt a modified system that seeks to utilise the Inte
rnational Phonetic Alphabet to a certain degree. The most successful of these is
that developed by Wolfgang Schenkel (1990), and it is being used fairly widely
in Germany and other German-speaking countries. More recent is a proposal by Tho
mas Schneider (2003) that is even closer to the IPA, but its usage is not presen
tly common. The major criticism levelled against both of these systems is that t
hey give an impression of being much more scientifically accurate with regard to
? (Egyptological Aijn) u?
?
?
h?
Unicode U+A723 U+02BE U+0131
U+0357 U+0069
U+032F U+00EF U+A725 U+0075
U+032F U+1E25 U+1E2B U+1E96 U+0068
U+032D
Majuscule
?
I?
I?
?
U?
?
H_
H?
Unicode U+A722
U+0049
U+0357 U+0049
U+032F U+00CF U+A724 U+0055
U+032F U+1E24 U+1E2A U+0048
U+0331 U+0048
U+032D
Minuscule
s
?
c
?
?
?
c?
Unicode U+015B U+0161 U+1E33 U+010D U+1E6F U+1E6D U+1E71 U+010D
U+0323 U+1E0F
Majuscule
S
?
C
?
?
?
C?
Unicode U+015A U+0160 U+1E32 U+010C U+1E6E U+1E6C U+1E70 U+010C
U+0323 U+1E0E
Brackets/
interpunction ?
?
?
?
?
Unicode U+2E17 U+27E8 U+27E9 U+2308 U+2309
Egyptological alef, ayin, and yod[edit]
Three additional characters are required for transliterating Egyptian:
Alef (Egyptological Alef, two Semitistic alephs, one set over the other (Lepsius
?
?
M23
X1
R4
X8
Q2
D4
W17
R14
G4
R8
O29
V30
U23
N26
D58
O49
Z1
F13
N31
V30
N16
N21 Z1 D45
N25
[Unicode: ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ]
(This text is conventionally translated into English as "an offering that the ki
ng gives; and Osiris, Foremost of Westerners [i.e., the Dead], the Great God, Lo
rd of Abydos; and Wepwawet, Lord of the Sacred Land [i.e., the Necropolis]." It
can also be translated "a royal offering of Osiris, Foremost of the Westerners,
the Great God, Lord of Abydos; and of Wepwawet, Lord of the Sacred Land" [Allen
2000:24.10].)
Erman and Grapow 1926 1953
?tp-d?-nswt ws?r ?nt?j ?mntjw n?r ?? nb ?b?w wp-w?wt nb t? ?sr
Gardiner 1953
?tp-d?-nswt ws?r ?nty ?mnt?w n?r ?? nb ?b?w wp-w?wt nb t? ?sr
Buurman, Grimal, et al. 1988
Htp-di-nswt wsir xnty imntiw nTr aA nb AbDw wp-wAwt nb tA Dsr
A fully encoded, machine-readable version of the same text is:
M23-X1:R4-X8-Q2:D4-W17-R14-G4-R8-O29:V30-U23-N26-D58-O49:Z1-F13:N31-V30:N16:N21*
Z1-D45:N25
Schenkel 1991
?tp-d?-nswt ws?r ?nty ?mntjw ncr ?? nb ?bc?w wp-w?wt nb t? c?sr
Allen 2000
?tp-dj-nswt wsjr ?nty jmntjw n?r ?? nb ?b?w wp-w?wt nb t? ?sr
Schneider 2003
?tp-??-nswt ws?r ?nty ?mntjw ncr ?? nb ?bc?w wp-w?wt nb t? c?sr
Uniliteral signs[edit]
The Egyptian hieroglyphic script contained 24 uniliterals (symbols that stood fo
r single consonants, much like English letters) which today we associate with th
e 26 glyphs listed below. (Note that the glyph associated with w/u also has a hi
eratic abbreviation.)
The traditional transliteration system shown on the left of the chart below is o
ver a century old and is the one most commonly seen in texts. It includes severa
l symbols such as alef (?) for sounds that were of unknown value at the time. Mu
ch progress has been made since, though there is still debate as to the details.
For instance, it is now thought the alef (?) may have been an alveolar lateral
approximant [l] in Old Egyptian but was lost by Middle Egyptian. The consonants
transcribed as voiced (d, g, ?) may actually have been ejective or, less likely,
pharyngealized like the Arabic emphatic consonants. A good description can be f
ound in Allen.[6]
Uniliteral signs
Sign
Traditional transliteration
Say
Notes Old Egyptian
A
??
Egyptian vulture
? (3) a
called alef or hamza,
a glottal stop [l] or [?]
silent, [j], and [?]
i
??
flowering reed i?
i/a
called yod
an initial or final vowe
l; sometimes [j]
i
i
??
pair of reeds y
y
called yod or y no record
[j]
y
??
pair of strokes
or river (?)
a
??
forearm ? (?) a
called ayin,
a voiced pharyngeal fricative perhaps [d]
[?]; [d] perhaps retained in som
e words and dialects
w
?? or
W
??
quail chick or its
hieratic abbreviation w
w/u
called waw
[w] ~ [u]
b
??
lower leg
b
b
[b] ~ []
p
??
reed mat or stool
p
p
aspirated [p?]
f
??
horned viper
f
f
[f]
m
??
owl
m
m
[m]
n
??
ripple of water n
n
[n]
[n], sometimes [l]
r
??
human mouth
r
r
[l] or [?]
[?], sometimes [
l]
(always [l] in some dialects)
h
??
reed shelter
h
h
[h]
H
??
twisted wick
?
h
an emphatic h,
a voiceless pharyngeal fricative
[h]
x
??
sieve or placenta
?
kh
a voiceless velar fricative
[x]
X
??
animal belly and tail ?
kh
a softer sound,
a voiceless palatal fricative []
s
??
folded cloth
s
s
Old Egyptian sound for
"door bolt" is unknown,
but perhaps was z or th [s]
[s]
z
??
door bolt
[z]
S
?? or
N38
?? or
N39
sh
[?]
??
garden pool
q
??
hill slope
? or q k
an emphatic k,
a voiceless uvular plosive
ejective [q']
k
??
basket with handle
k
k
aspirated [k?]
in some words, palatalized [k?]
g
??
jar stand
g
g
ejective [k']
t
??
bread loaf
t
t
aspirated [t?]
T
??
tethering rope or hobble
? or tj ch
as in English church
palatalized [t?] or [t??]
d
??
hand
d
d
ejective [t']
D
??
cobra ? or dj j
as in English judge
ejective [t?'] or [t??']
Gardiner [7] lists several variations:
Uniliteral signs
Sign
Traditional transliteration
Notes
V33
??
bag of linen
g
Appears in a few older words
Aa15
??
possibly a finger
m
Originally biliteral i?m
S3
??
crown of Lower Egypt
n
Originally ideogram nt for 'crown of Low
er Egypt'
U33
??
pestle t
Originally biliteral ti?
See also[edit]
Egyptian biliteral signs
Egyptian triliteral signs
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Carsten Peust, Egyptian Phonology: Introduction to the Phonology of a
Dead Language (Gttingen, 1999), 127.
Jump up ^ Peust, Egyptian Phonology, p. 50, 99ff.
Jump up ^ Everson, Michael. Proposal to add 6 Egyptological characters to the UC
S, 2000-08-27
Jump up ^ Everson, Michael and Bob Richmond, EGYPTOLOGICAL YOD and Cyrillic brea
thing, 2008-04-08
Jump up ^ Everson, Michael, Proposal to encode Egyptological Yod and similar cha
racters in the UCS, 2008-08-04
Jump up ^ Allen, James P. (2000). Middle Egyptian: an Introduction to the Langua
ge and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-77483-7.
Jump up ^ Gardiner, Sir Alan H. (1973). Egyptian Grammar, 3rd. Ed. The Griffith
Institute. p. 27. ISBN 0-900416-35-1.
References[edit]
Allen, James Paul. 2000. Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Cu
lture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Buurman, Jan, Nicolas-Christophe Grimal, Michael Hainsworth, Jochen Hallof, and
Dirk van der Plas. 1988. Inventaire des signes hiroglyphiques en vue de leur sais
ie informatique: Manuel de codage des textes hiroglyphiques en vue de leur saisie
sur ordinateur. 3rd ed. Informatique et gyptologie 2. Mmoires de l'Acadmie des Ins
criptions et Belle-Lettres (Nouvelle Srie) 8. Paris: Institut de France.
Erman, Adolf, and Hermann Grapow, eds. 1926 1953. Wrterbuch der aegyptischen Sprach
e im Auftrage der deutschen Akademien. 6 vols. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'schen Buc
hhandlungen. (Reprinted Berlin: Akademie-Verlag GmbH, 1971).
Gardiner, Alan Henderson. 1957. Egyptian Grammar; Being an Introduction to the S
tudy of Hieroglyphs. 3rd ed. Oxford: Griffith Institute.
Hannig, Rainer. 1995. Groes Handwrterbuch gyptisch Deutsch: die Sprache der Pharaonen
(2800 950 v. Chr.). Kulturgeschichte der antiken Welt 64 (Hannig-Lexica 1). Mainz
am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
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